what you had was a much worse economic environment in those states and the rest of the country, you had a republican in the white house, two terms of reagan. the voters seemed to take it out on the incumbent party in a way that didn't happen anywhere else. i'm looking at, for instance, a state like ohio where obama has been consistent. the economy is better in ohio than it is around the country. you have the auto bailout that obama put in place has clearly helped that state. could it be that he has a leg up in a state like ohio and a few others like iowa that he doesn't have anywhere else in the country and there are two separate elections? i'm seriously wondering. >> there's a point to what you're making partly because if we go against steve on the numbers we're going to lose. >> who would do that. never. >> there is definitely noise in the national number because there are states in the south and appalacia where obama's numbers are depressed and other states where it's closer. all of that factored into the national numbers doesn't factor into the states. when you just look at ohio whi